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John Pricci

HorseRaceInsider.com executive editor John Pricci has over three decades of experience as a thoroughbred racing public handicapper and was an award-winning journalist while at New York Newsday for 18 years.

John has covered 14 Kentucky Derbies and Preaknesses, all but three Breeders' Cups since its inception in 1984, and has seen all but two Belmont Stakes live since 1969.

Currently John is a contributing racing writer to MSNBC.com, an analyst on the Capital Off-Track Betting television network, and co-hosts numerous handicapping seminars. He resides in Saratoga Springs, New York.

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Friday, April 27, 2012

ELMONT, NY, April 26, 2012—It’s opening day at Belmont Park.

Horseplayers love opening days for a new set of parameters; fresh live horses from different barns; disparate race shapes and strategies; horses for different courses; changing configurations and, in Belmont’s case, two turf courses to play with.

A fresh slate; it’s opening day and everybody’s even.

Psychologically, too, opening days provide a lift; Triple Crown time has finally arrived; winter’s over and spring is getting smaller in the rear view. Can Saratoga summer be far behind?

Horseplayers love opening day, of course, but it’s abigger deal than that for the New York Racing Association and in a strange way for the industry as a whole.

The bigger purses offered at Belmont Park have been life-changing. The balance of power that once resided in New York as a birthright, but ebbed away, is just now returning.

At the moment, it’s Kentucky turn to feel the pain; as if competition from outside its own borders from slots-infused neighbors weren’t enough.

Now it’s the slots-infused New York purses, and the Commonwealth’s own uncertain future, that has compelled Midwest horsemen to confront the reality of the post-training and racing traffic, courtesy of the L.I.E.

But at least Kentucky horsemen, and New Yorkers, too, are comfortable that it will take Gov. Andrew Cuomo a long time to finally decide whether the continued existence of major league Thoroughbred racing is “in the best interests of New York State.”

In case the outlanders missed the memo, a.k.a. the State of the State message, racing was a major part of the state’s expanded gaming plans which doubtlessly was the reason why many Kentuckians decided to come here. In subsequent interviews, hpwever, Mario’s son was still expressing doubts about Thoroughbred racing's ultimate future in the Empire State.

All this outside-the-fences drama is not helping players to keep their eyes on the ball. Just recently Royal Delta resumed galloping; Winter Memories is close to her 4-year-old debut; Alpha continues his schooling at the starting gate, but the headlines won't stop.

What will happen at the Congressional hearings that begin Monday, where the major question posed is likely to be “it’s been almost four years now, what has your industry done to change its drug culture?”

They will also want to know, among other things, whether new rules being proposed by Racing Commissioners International will have actual teeth.

The only sign that the racing community is confronting its drug demons is ginning-up its rhetoric in support of a race-day Lasix ban.

“Strong-armed tactics,” said the status-quo leader of a horsemen’s group on the use of race-day Lasix.

"Horse racing is the cleanest, most drug-free sport in the world....the argument of [fan] perception does not stand," is one of the conclusions drawn by a trainer of one of this year’s top Kentucky Derby contenders.

Racing media has joined in. Wrote a multiple Eclipse Award-winning turf writer, married to a Kentucky-based trainer, while correctly pointing out that a unilateral race-day ban would raze my old Kentucky home by asking: “Want so see a bloody corpse?”

The Kentucky Racing Commission hearing at which a race-day Lasix ban failed to pass was not fairly conducted, the issue placed on the agenda at the 11th hour in an attempt was to ramrod the measure through. However well meaning, that tack was wrong.

Unfortunately, due to contamination or honest human error, a near-zero-tolerance drug policy has failed when it comes to therapeutic medication. Complete abolition is impractical and irresponsible.

But the fact that Lasix use as a diuretic is a major red flag given its potential masking-agent properties and does not prevent bleeding is equally an inadequate defense for its use.

Racing--no organized sport, for that matter--ever has been conducted strictly hay, oats and water or its equivalents.

If, however, tests were standardized and rules made uniform, race-day medication proponents would have a better argument even if it means raising current infinitesimally small legal thresholds. But those concerns haven’t been addressed recently either.

Consider that if it were not for a slip of the tongue and public perception, steroids likely would still be a part of the game. To its credit, the industry seized the day and within about a year it was gone.

Four years have passed since the “Eight Belles” commission and steroids abolishment is the only tangible progress the industry can point to that the public wants to understand.

The public--the same ones the industry would like to see at a racetrack occasionally--regards other internal measures taken by the industry as so much window dressing.

Incendiary rhetoric and charges of class warfare are counterproductive. What is needed is for an industry-leading group to shake the entire tree.

The Jockey Club is the breed’s Registrar whose mission is “dedicated to the improvement of Thoroughbred breeding and racing by providing support to a wide range of industry initiatives.”

It must take the leadership role, more than simply calling for a voluntary end to race-day Lasix. Its focus must go beyond creating measures to deal with the problem but act to eliminate it by decentivizing the status quo.

External pressure is being brought to bear on the industry. First it must be careful not to implode. Opening days no longer can afford to be taken for granted.

Throwing money at a problem isn’t exact science, and doesn’t take much thinking. Slot money is now filling the cards with Turf sprints, and a back stretch full of maidens. Racing office still has a problem getting quality Allowance and stakes fields. NYRA needs to focus more on providing less money for maidens and Turf sprints, and lay the golden eggs for the better stakes and allowances. Have new faces on the backside with tons of maidens isn’t what I would call good fields. It’s more like Robin Hood racing. Give me quality, not quanity. As for Lasix, you can train on it all you want, here or over the pond, but not on the day the individual needs it most. Just stupid!!!

Frankly, JP, I’m sick and tired of the abuse of the word “rhetoric” and “hyperbole,” when pointing the finger at persons stating their honest opinions on this subject (among others). Use of such words usually means the adversary has no case, but disagrees. Finally, they resort to the word “rude,” at a last grasp before giving up.

Horses got along just fine for thousands of years without this drug, and did just fine without it racing in the 20th century. Why was it not allowed for so long? The answer is clear; our society has degenerated to such a low point, and there may be no coming back. The bar needs to be raised back up, and high.

This drug is not being used for therapy, it is being used for financial gain at the expense of a horse’s health and welfare. The horse is more than a “money machine.” Let’s go back to the day when our sport had some dignity.

And there we have it, two historically intelligent readers/contributors at HRI on opposite pages, and that’s fine.

TTT, when it comes to “rhetoric” and “hyperbole,” I guess I’m just being sensitive to what is a lack of, in my view, trying to establish an honest dialogue. The use of inflammatory language impedes the process of trying to “hear” the other side; to think about what the issue means long after all of us are gone.

Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, New York’s opening days in March and August were celebrations of returns of racing to locales where absence made the heart grow fonder. The anticipation generated was such that even my mentor, who never made a serious wager during the first two weeks of any meet, would twinkle the turnstiles to take in the moment of optimism and excitement that officially concluded winter and, later, the 150 mile Saturday sojourns downstate for us upstate weekend warriors.

Now we have closing day celebrations in California where track CEOs “hype” slight gains in handle following the boycott year of 2011; ignoring the fact that the 2012 figures are still well below the already anemic 2010 figures that preceded the particularly offensive takeout hike.

Would Santa Anita handle have improved without the fortuitous increase in the number of Pick Six carryovers and the new player-friendly, low-takeout early Pick Five? Did the playing field-tilting rebate program for whales by XpressBet actually have any effect?

Now Hollywood Park opens with a new past performance line track code of BHP instead of HOL to reflect its new partnership with Betfair. The exchange wagering giant is spending lots of money at HOL and DMR to garner support from tracks not controlled by Frank Stronach in an effort to get their wagering product into the State.

Previously, the most successful stifler of opening days was simulcasting, Will the effect of exchange wagering be permanent closing days?

JP, am I missing something. When last I commented on the subject of increased purses, was told that we would see it at Belmont and Saratoga. Well, Belmont is here, and I’m not going to waste my time comparing opening day average purses last year to this year’s, but at a glance, have to believe there is not much of a difference, if any. The check is in the mail......And another thing, the NYRA is like the land that time forgot. Smaller venutes are moving forward with important technological innovations such as Trakkus, but at the old NYRA, the greatest City in the World, they can’t afford it. Business as usual. The building is falling apart, the grounds look like hell, and the horses are all drug addicts. I’m not being negative, I’m being honest.

“Average daily purses, including stakes and overnight races, will go from approximately $430,000 (in 2011) to $620,000 (44 percent increase) for the 2012 Belmont spring meet and from approximately $670,000 to $930,000 (39 percent increase) for the 2012 Saratoga meet.”

I believe you would have to go back to the Dark Ages to find some who thinks 44% and 39% are “not much of a difference...”

Ted, it’s time to embrace Copernicus and admit the Earth does revolve around the sun, and it is round, not flat.

Once upon a time, thr villagers noticed that the Emperor was not wearing clothes but all were afraid of the consequences as to raising such concerns. I must commend TTT and Indulto for firmly stating the obvious. Evil needs silence to perpetuate its power and influence. Good people cannot remain abstinent when confronted with wrongdoing. Race day medication is an experiment that has miserably failed.

Old fogies, of which I have suddenly become a member, watched, wagered on and cheered the Foregos, Kelsos and John Henrys of the 60s, 70s and 80s. I was and always will be a Forego loyalist. He raced on infirm legs and carried obscene weight ( Notwithstanding the current “fear” of carrying weight). For all the proponents of race-day medication, please let me know what secret miracle drugs Frank Whiteley used for the Great One?, or for that matter Kelly or J. Henry, or Big Red or Seattle Slew? How did those horse run faster and more often than the pampered babies of today? When you can provide the answer to that question, then perhaps, we can have a legitimate discussion of the therapeutic aspects of LAsix, Bute and any other wonder drug that you wish to use. Otherwise, you would be wise to hunker down, batten the hatches and hope that the Congressional hurricane about to blow through town does not remove your entire industry to the dustbin of history!

John: Hope you enjoy your Saturday at Belmont. God, I hope you’re dressing warming for the occasion. Why can’t they open these things in March, when the weather was 85*? (!)

JP, when you have a chance, I need an answer to a Q.

How can sites like DRF, the Paulick Report, etc., have such god-awful fiasco posting-systems like Disqus etc. - and this one is close to perfect?

While we’re at it, thanks for not installing Likes and Share This and Squat That and I Got A Million Tweets, Didn’t You? features.

What’s the point? By now, thanks to the Customer Elimination Programs (1980-2012) rousing successes, every one!), there are more Scientologists than handicappers in the USA.

Why install something that reveals the self-inflicted embarrassing information that only six people (out of 300,000,000) read the story, or had an opinion, or is permanently lost on the Internet and elected to park his keyboard there for a while?

Nick: Beware of overnight financial inflation. It has a lethal kick. Just because there’s more money doesn’t mean that things that are important to the fans will improve.

In fact, there’s no incentive now for that scenario. We’re not now where the BIG money is coming from.

NYRA has a very nice deal going here where people they NEVER see deposit cash into casino sucker machines. They’ll never complain that a Belmont toilet is busted or a teller is a #######.

Well, I must go now. Time for my Secret Service Bordello sensitivity training course at Quantico.

I’m reluctant to apply the word “evil” to the forces of unchecked self-interest at the root of racing’s problems, but I suppose we did get a glimpse of it during the NY Racing Franchise Renewal and the casino contract award processes. We have it in our collective power to force transparency, uniformity, and cooperation upon the industry, but we seem to lack the individual will to harness it and get the mule’s attention.

Dick Powell just wrote an interesting piece at BRIS shifting the focus if not the blame for fewer Foregos for us fogies to favor on breeders rather than medicaters (SP?). That makes more sense to me than “perception is reality.”

Today’s story about Charlie Hayward’s coverup is simply outrageous. He deserves dismissal and possibly an indictment. However, I’m angrier at Steve Crist, if that’s possible. For Steve, and the DRF, to have participated in this coverup is beyond the pale. If the DRF has any standing left in this industry, it must be the bulwark against such outrageous conduct. How can we, the fans of this sport, have any faith in the reporting of the newspaper of record, when it remains silent in the face of direct evidence of financial mismanagement by the NYRA? Is there a shred of decency left in this industry?

John, looking forward to your viewpoint on the Hayward-Crist melee currently being waged.

I was reminded of your recent comment about “off the record” statements, and how they impact racing journalism.

Be well, and I hope your Derby Day is swell. Or grand. Lots of Grands, to be specific!

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